Cytoprotective Impact of Chrysin (5,7-Dihydroxyflavone) upon Cyclophosphamide-Administered Experimental Animals

Introduction. Chemotherapeutics are widely recognized for their adverse side-effects during anti-cancer regiments. One of the complementary approaches to circumvent this dilemma could be the exploitation of natural compounds, which could optimally counteract the cellular damages during chemotherapy. The present study ventures to evaluate the natural flavonoid, chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone) for its therapeutic immunomodulatory properties along with the chemotherapeutic drug, cyclophosphamide (CP). Methods. Male Wistar albino rats were utilized for this study. Assays were conducted for acute toxicity, Hemolysis, Phagocytosis, Natural Killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity, and oxidative stress. RT-PCR, ELISA and Western Blot were performed to assess the expression of inflammatory markers. Results. Assay results such as Phagocytosis Index (0.009 ± 0.001), NK cell cytotoxicity (61.10 ± 4.99%), expression of Perforin (0.45 ± 0.05 fold) and Granzyme (0.86 ± 0.01 fold), hepatic antioxidative enzymes GSH (27.75 ± 1.54 μg/mg ), SOD (7.10 ± 0.35 U/mg ) and CAT (249.06 ± 31.30 μM/min/mg) and splenic hepatic antioxidative enzymes GSH (20.88 ± 0.74 μg/mg), SOD (7.10 ± 0.35 U/mg) and CAT (249.06 ± 31.30 μM/min/mg) among the CP-treated groups were compared with those for the CP+chrysin treated groups which were evaluated to be significantly increased with values of 0.016 ± 0.001, 82.73 ± 2.87%, 0.77 ± 0.08 fold, 1.11 ± 0.02 fold, 47.60 ± 3.02 μg/mg, 08.97 ± 0.42 U/mg, 467.19 ± 15.92 μM/Min/mg, 29.02 ± 1.59 μg/mg, 5.17 ± 0.94 U/mg, 310.29 ± 9.1330 μM/Min/mg, respectively. Histopathological examination indicated that CP+chrysin treated groups could recover from cellular damage triggered during the CP treatment. Conclusion. Results indicate the cytoprotective role of chrysin, which in turn, could be reliably administered as a complementary therapy along with CP during chemotherapy.